Promises Kept
by FaeQueen84
Summary: Promises are meant to be kept.  Same world as 'That wasn't funny'  rating for safety.


Promises Kept

Set after the destruction of Konoha

Same storyline as That Wasn't Funny

Disclaimer:I don't own 'em, I'm just a spoony bard

Naruto stood in front of the Hokage's desk waiting for Tsunade to tell him why she called him. She had been awake from her healing coma for all of three hours before calling Naruto to her office in secret.

"Naruto, there is something I need to do, and I need you to go with me." The blonde sannin was still very pale.

"Tsunade, are you sure right now is the time-"

"Naruto, I don't care if you, or anyone else in Konoha thinks now is the right time or not. This cannot be put off any longer." Tsunade looked angry, though Naruto could tell she really wasn't.

"Tsunade-sama, where are we going?"

"I have to bring him home." The Hokage stood from her chair and looked out the window of the small cabin that was currently her office. "He promised me he'd come home."

"Tsunade-sama? Are you okay?" Naruto almost reached for her. She sounded almost lost.

She spun to face him, her resolve firmly in place, jabbing the young man before her in the chest with a manicured nail "Uzumaki Naruto, you will go with me to Amegenkure to retrieve the body of the Toad Sage Jiraiya."

Naruto stepped back from the force of her finger jab. He understood now why it couldn't be put off nay longer. Much longer and his remains would be completely unidentifiable. He also understood why it was he who was being asked to go with her. He was Jiriaya's student. She was his former team mate. Out of everyone, they had the strongest bond to him.

"When do we leave Hokage-sama?" It came out more subdued than he'd planned. He wanted his sensei to have a proper burial, with all of the honor he deserved, but he dreaded to think what the man would look like when they found him.

"Now. No one knows I'm awake yet. I've had Shizune put a clone in my place. It should fool even Sakura, at least for a while. "the Hokage pulled a pack from under her desk and tossed it to Naruto. She lifted a similar one of her own and pointed at the back door. "That way. We're going to just sneak out the back door when no one is looking."

It was easy for the two of them to slip away unnoticed into the woods. They ran quickly through the trees using chakra enhanced speed, making the three day walk in only twelve hours. They stopped only long enough to briefly rest and eat before setting out to locate where Jiraiya had battled with Pain. Tsunade had gotten some vague directions from Granny Toad, and they discovered that even though the old toad made the directions seem very strange, they were very accurate.

Broken chunks of stone, concrete and rebar littered the area. In some of the more weather-sheltered areas were still splotches of what was obviously blood. Tsunade could tell that by the sheer amount they did find, versus what was already lost to the elements, that if by nothing else, Jiraiya would have died from blood loss. A large stain made her heart tighten in her chest, and tears threatened to overwhelm her. It was worse when Naruto found the arm.

One look, and even through the not quite three weeks of decay, she could recognize that hand. There, right there on the palm, was the scar from the night they had reached Jounin status. They'd gone drinking, and Jiraiya, being Jiraiya and very, very drunk, had grabbed her ass. She had responded by pining his other hand to the bar with a kunai. He'd never healed it.

Naruto was standing about six or seven feet away with his head between his knees, sucking great lungful's of air and trying desperately not to be sick. Either from the smell, or shock, Tsunade wasn't sure. She was shaking as she entered this part of her friend to the preserving scrolls she's packed. Losing his arm would have accounted for the mass amount of blood scattered around. She hopes it's just his arm. She didn't know if she could stand finding him in pieces.

"Tsunade-"

"Don't. Naruto, just, please just don't. We need to find him."

"Well, I can say I think we're going in the wrong direction. If his-if this is the start of the blood trail, then we need to find the other end." Naruto headed back the direction they had come.

Back outside, Naruto looked down at the water. He frowned and removed his pack. Tsunade took it from him, and before she could ask what he was doing, Naruto dove into the water. When he surfaced, he took a deep breath and dove again. Tsunade watched him repeat this three more times in different spots before he swam back over and climbed out.

"There' a current. We should check further down." He swept his wet hair from his eyes and pointed the direction of the flow. Tsunade nodded and started walking downstream.

Neither spoke much. The gloom o their mission hung over them like a black cloud. The first night she stared at the fire until it smoldered and died in the early hours of morning while Naruto pretended to sleep. The second and third nights, both pretended to sleep. On the fourth night, Naruto heard Tsunade sobbing. He sat up from his bedroll and turned to look at her. She sat with her knees drawn to her chest, hugging herself in her despair.

"Tsunade?"

"I loved him. God, why did I never tell him? I always thought-" but whatever she thought was lost in a fresh wave of tears.

Naruto rose from his bed to sit with her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let her cry. He cried with her, Jiraiya had been important to him too. But Tsunade had loved him. Had been _in love_ with him. Now he was gone, and so was her chance to ever tell him, to ever know if holding him, kissing him, would be as good as she imagined. There would be no more nights where the two of them lost themselves in each other's company. He would never carry her home after the bar again. Never tell her 'you'd only regret it in the morning' again. She would never wake to find him sleeping in her chair again. He would never pop into her office window again to brighten an otherwise boring day again. Too many 'never again's. She cried until she fell asleep.

The next morning Tsunade said nothing. They searched on, the further they got from the city without finding anything, the more hopeless it seemed that they would recover the white haired sage's body.

"Today has to be our last day of searching. I cannot put off taking care of things in Konoha any longer." Tsunade's voice was flat, defeated. Naruto nodded in response, and though he also didn't want to give up the search, he understood the duty they both had to the village and it's people. The day was already half over, the clouds rolling in as a storm rolled in.

Through the light drizzle that started shortly after, what felt like, the abandonment of their mission, they continued to walk along the banks of the river leading form Amegenkure. When the rain began to pour down and almost all the light had gone from the sky, Naruto stopped in his tracks.

"Tsunade-sama."

The Hokage stopped and hung her head. "I know. We should find shelter." The second was stated in an almost harsh, angry tone. Naruto shielded his eyes from the rain and peered into the distance.

"I think there's a farm up there." He pointed to indicate the direction of the shadowed building's he's barely been able to make out. Both shinobi turned and fell in step towards the promise of being warm and dry.

An old man answered the door. Old being understated. This man was old enough his skin was nearly transparent, his wrinkles had wrinkles, not a single hair graced his bald head, his fu-man-chu mustache reached his knees, liver spots graced his hands and wrists. He did not, however, have the demeanor to match. Opened the door may have been an understatement as well. After pounding on the door loud enough to be heard over the booming of the now full-fledged thunders storm, it had flown open, and the two of them had been dragged into a dimly lit parlor, roughly dried with towels, and had been seated in front of a warm fire with hot mugs of jasmine tea in their hands all in under a ten minute span by the old man.

The tea had been served to them by an equally old woman. She also brought out a plate of cookies, smiling when Naruto took them form her. She didn't miss his forehead protector, nor the symbol of Konoha on it.

"What are two Leaf Nin doing so far away from home? And such a terrible storm. I was just telling Pa here the other day-"

Her husband cut her off with a wave of his hand "Never mind that dear. The business of shinobi hasn't been our concern since we retired. Now then. The weather is far too wretched for you two stay out in it. However, our guest room is currently occupied, so I will have no choice but to offer the barn." The old man smiled at them. "And yes, I said retired. My wife and I used to be shinobi for Rain Country. We have been retired for many years. We are far too old for fighting, so you needn't worry. I know who you are, Lady Tsunade, the Slug Princess and Hokage of Konoha, though it has been far too long for you to remember me." Tsunade looked very confused for a moment, but the old man just grinned at her. "It was two lifetimes ago. Now then, I'll see about fetching some blankets."

The old woman handed Naruto a few more cookies and turned towards stairs leading up. "My husband mentioned our guest. I need to check on him, the poor man."

Tsunade set her cup beside her. "I am a medic nin. If there is anything I can do to help, I will." She stood, and the old woman smiled.

"Why how sweet of you! The poor man. He still hasn't woken up since we found him. Awful beat up he was. I haven't seen anything like it in a long, long time. He had a fever for the first three days or so."

"How long ago did you find him?" It was important to know as much about a patient as possible. "I need to know the extent of his injuries as you know them."

"Almost two weeks now. Pa found him down by the river."

Tsunade's heart skipped a beat.

"Like I said, I haven't seen injuries like this in a long time. I can tell you, he's shinobi from somewhere. He still had several kunai stuck in him. He'd been stabbed several times by what I can only assume was a katana. His right arm had been severed."

Tsunade's blood ran cold. "He has white hair, and red marks down his cheeks." she whispered. They had reached the door of what was to assumed, the guest room. Tsunade's reached for the knob, her heart in her throat, not daring to pray that her suspicions were right.

"How did you know?" The door opened.

The scream tore from her throat before she realized it. Her hands flew to cover her mouth. Yes, he was pale, yes, bruises still showed on the bare shoulders that peeked form beneath the blankets, yes, his chakra levels were barely there, yes, Jiraiya was alive. Tsunade wasn't aware of rushing to the bed, but suddenly, she was there on her knees at his side, her ear pressed against his chest where she could hear the rush of his breathing, and the slow beat of his heart.

Joy bubbled inside her so strong that it escaped as a ragged sob. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she kissed his chest where his heart beat beneath, she kissed his forehead, his cheeks, his eyelids, his lips.

"God, I thought you were dead. I should have told you. I love you. Please, please, please don't ever leave me like this again. I love you. I always did." She whispered them to him in between kisses.

Naruto had risen to his feet to see if the old man needed any help while Tsunade helped out the old lady with their guest. He had been piled up with several pillows and blankets while the old man explained that they had stopped actually farming a few years back and the barn stood empty.

"I hope these will help though. We used to keep some hay in the loft just in case but-"

His sentence was cut in half by the scream coming from the upstairs. It was Tsunade, and hearing it, Naruto dropped the bedding, shedding his normal cheerful demeanor for his battle face. As he jumped the stairs, he drew a kunai and focused on Tsunade's chakra signature. He burst through the doorway of the old couple's guest room only to be stunned. He skidded a bit until he stopped next to the old woman who looked slightly amused. She turned to Naruto and continued on what could only be assumed as an injury list.

"The missing arm, yeah well there's something weird going on, he has this little growth on it. Started about three days ago I wasn't sure what to do with it, but if it got much bigger I was going to have to call a doctor." She seemed oblivious to Naruto's utter shock and disbelief.

Tsunade was still kissing Jiraiya's face, tears still falling from her cheeks. Naruto blushed at interrupting such a private moment. As he prepared to turn away, Tsunade kissed her friend's lips again. Dark eyes opened, and one good arm slipped form under the blankets to hold her there.

His voice was raw, his throat hurt from having been crushed. But the healing coma he had placed himself in had done wonders so far, and he forced the words. "Woman, your luck is still as bad as ever. I'm back to you alive, and now that I know you love me too, when my arm finishes growing back, and we're in Konoha, I'm going to make you my wife like you promised." Tsunade's cheeks pinked, and the Toad Sage turned to look at his prodigy. "Kid, you're gonna be my best man right?"

Tsunade lifted her head from Jiraiya's chest and stared at Naruto in the doorway. Her embarrassment flushed her face hotter. She hated being embarrassed. She reached for the lamp on the bedside table and whipped it at Naruto's head. "GET OUT!"

Once alone, Tsunade assessed Jiraiya's injuries. His other injuries were mostly healed, but his windpipe still needed time to meant, his voice would probably carry a rasp after, and of course, there was his missing arm. Tsunade did not mention that they had found it.

"It just needs time." He told her. "Frog Fu secrets. I'll have to go back to sleep. It takes a lot of chakra." He kept his verbalizations short, he was weak and his throat still hurt.

When she had finished assessing him, and Jiraiya no longer had the stamina to stay awake, she joined Naruto and the elderly couple downstairs. She felt lighter, brighter inside. Naruto stood at attention when she entered the room

"Is Ero-sennin-?" He wasn't sure how to finish the question, but left it hanging open.

"He will be fine. His arm will be fine as well. He needs to put himself into a healing trance to finish." She turned to their hosts. "Is it possiblet hat he could stay here util he is fit to return to Konoha? We would be more than willing to pay you for this service."

The old man grinned. "Of course. We're good folk, and even if you ahdn't offered to pay we would have done it anyway. Let's get you folks fed and settled in for the night.

They still stayed in the barn, and in the morning Naruto helped the old man do chores around the run down farm while Tsunade checked over jariya once more before leaving care directions with the old woman. Being ex-shinobi, they understood their need to return to the village. As they turned toward Konoha, gearing up for another chakra infused run, Tsunade turned to Naruto.

"You will never, ever, ever, talk about any, and I mean ANY of this to anyone or I will bury you beneath the Hokage monument and they will never find your body." And though her words were threatening, they both headed home feeling lighter than theyhad when they left. Tsunade didn't say another thing to him until back in Konoha and she had officially 'woken form her coma'.


End file.
